


Bonfire in a Library

by Fullmetalruby



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged in no particular order, alternatively; in which sasuke is a mednin and nothing hurts, it's blackkat's fault, nonlinear, what if sasuke was a mednin guys, will be updated as I feel the Inspiration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-10-02 04:28:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10209614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fullmetalruby/pseuds/Fullmetalruby
Summary: Anonymous prompt submitted to blackkatmagic on tumblr"i have no idea where this came from, but i was thinking about sasuke and what if the massacre made him a pacifist? not like uchiha "double standards" itachi, but more of an edward elric. sasuke being all anger and trust issues and would fight his own reflection, but absolutely refuses to take a life."





	1. Chapter 1

Sasuke is eight when he decides that he wants to be a medic.

He’s laying in a hospital bed, his head pounding from The Traitor’s (Sasuke’s brother doesn’t have a name anymore; if Sasuke has to reference him at all, he’s just The Traitor) psychotic genjutsu, and he’s been staring blankly at the bedspread for two hours. One of the nurses came by to tell him that everything hadn’t just been a dream, that his family really was dead by The Traitor’s hand, and Sasuke’s brain shut down.  The nurses, the doctors, the Naras and Hyuugas and Shiranuis who never found their places in the field, were among the kindest people Sasuke had ever met.

The one who had broken the news to him was named Tsuneo, and Sasuke found out quickly that he loves taking his break to watch the sunrise (“I used to do this with my husband before-” here Tsuneo falters and smiles melancholically. “Before eight years ago.”), that his two children were about Sasuke’s age, if he wants to meet them, wouldn’t that be nice? and if Sasuke needs to eat all his vegetables if he wants Tsuneo to leave him alone.

Sasuke spends a lot of time in the children’s ward of Konoha General,  various Yamanaka psychologists determining that whatever The Traitor had done to Sasuke within the genjutsu had been harsh enough to leave severe psychosomatic repercussions. Sasuke was put through rigorous psychotherapy to help him through it.

But back in the compound, Sasuke had always gone to bed with a comfortable murmur in the background, the sounds of a district full of shinobi who didn’t need nearly as much sleep as children like Sasuke and thus stayed up far later and made a lot of noise as they trained in the darkness of the night on the rooftops. Going to sleep in silence just wasn’t something Sasuke knew how to do. The constant hum of the hospital was comforting, and the constant chatter of Tsuneo and Ayaka and Shinji and Mitsuri and Eri and the other nurses was the reason Sasuke recovered so fast.

While he’s there, wasting his days away by listening to Tsuneo and the other nurses talk at him and reading whatever scrolls he can get his hands on. But there aren’t a ton of stories to be had in the hospital, so Sasuke ends up reading a lot of scrolls about medical jutsus and research.

(“I wanted to be a teacher once, like at the academy,” Ayaka told him once and she explained the minutiae of organ transplants with all the ease of a surgeon.

Sasuke gives her a look that says ‘ _Well, why didn’t you?_ ’ because even though it’s been three months since the massacre Sasuke still can’t leave the hospital and has refused to speak a word to anyone but Tsuneo.

Ayaka shrugged and handed Sasuke the wrong scroll. “I realized that I don’t have the patience not to stab children who get on my nerves.”)


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as Sasuke is cleared to leave the hospital, Tsuneo pretty much kidnaps him. 

“I have watched you for the past four months, Sasuke. I have read your psych evals- don’t you give me that look,  _ yes _ I know it’s technically against the law for me to do that but shush- and I can promise that however physically fine you may be you are not ready to go back to that house,” Tsuneo babbles as he leads Sasuke to an apartment complex less than ten minutes away from the hospital.

Tsuneo’s sons Sandā and Raikō are  just as chatty as their father and twice as energetic, and when they rope Sasuke into their games Tsuneo just laughs and says that it builds character to be forced into things. The boys, seven and nine respectively, are still practically made of rubber and while they don’t break any bones- excepting that one time when someone bet that  Raikō wouldn’t jump off a roof and into a tree and he did it, but miscalculated the force of his jump and instead of landing on a branch he slammed foot first into the trunk- but they did get scratches and cuts and bruises like all seven and nine year olds are wont to do, and that’s how Sasuke practices what he learns.

Sasuke learns quickly, still devouring iryoninjustu scrolls like he’s a bonfire in a library. His sharingan, giving him an eidetic memory in return for the slow degradation of his eyesight, helps with memorization. He wonders vaguely if any other Uchiha had ever used their sharingan to remember the difference between the malleus, incus, and stapes.

(The village elders once tried to remove Sasuke from Tsuneo’s care, and it very nearly works, but then Tsuneo marches right into the council chambers with the kind of fury on his face that tells exactly how he produced children named Lightning and Thunder and sticks his finger right in Utatane and Mitokado’s faces, telling them exactly what he’ll do to whatever unfortunate soul who tries to take Sasuke away.

The elders give up disappointingly quick.)

When Tsuneo finally lets Sasuke go back to the academy, he only gets passed into the next level- he was gone for four months and missed the final exam, after all- because he can claim that he was honing a specialty.

The instructors watch him as he trains with the rest of the class and Sasuke does his best to pretend that he can’t hear them comparing him to The Traitor and how  _ oh, Itachi was already so much more advanced by the time he was Sasuke’s age, look he’s not even as good a shot _ .

Sasuke, hearing this, likes to look them dead in the eyes and deliberately miss his target. Sometimes he gets lucky and hits someone else’s target, sometimes he hits a tree or buries his weapon in the ground, and on one memorable occasion he accidentally put his kunai through someone’s foot.  That might be why Kiba doesn't trust him anymore, but seeing as how Sasuke  _did_ heal it right after(some of his finest work, even if it was his first time healing a wound of that magnitude) Kiba didn't have any room to complain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so the first and second chapter were originally written as one larger piece but I got frustrated and cut it in half because I wasn't satisfied with it.  
> Thus the title coming from this chapter and not the first one.  
> Ps the malleus, incus, and stapes are the bones of the inner ear


	3. Chapter 3

Team assignments happen on a sunny day when Sasuke is twelve.

It’s no surprise that Sasuke ends up on a team with Naruto, seeing as how Naruto injures himself so often and Sasuke is the best healer in the class.

Sasuke has been in the same class as Naruto for six years and the last four have been spent pumping him full of medical chakra. On the bright side, he’s been excellent practice for nearly every kind of injury, and on several occasions Sasuke’s gotten practice in dealing with an unconscious patient.

Ever since Sasuke’s intent to become a mednin turns into public knowledge- he healed Kiba’s foot after accidentally putting a kunai through it- the entire class starts coming to him when they scrape up their knees or otherwise injure themselves. And one of the repeat offenders is Naruto Uzumaki.

The surprise on the team is Sakura Haruno. She has no apparent skills beyond fighting with Ino Yamanaka and mooning over Sasuke, and no apparent aspirations beyond blushing and getting Sasuke to heal her nosebleeds.

“My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes… My dreams for the future… Hmm… As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies…” Sasuke, unfortunately, was expecting something like this.

Sasuke has been volunteering at Konoha General for four years, and he’s come across Kakashi Hatake once or twice. The man, however powerful or smart he is, is a joke. He’s rude and condescending, and even someone as emotionally stunted as Sasuke can tell that Kakashi Hatake is a human trainwreck. But hey, a sharingan is a sharingan, so Kakashi has the best idea of how to train a tiny Uchiha.

“I'm Sakura Haruno! I like...well, the person I like is…” Sakura throws a blushy smile in Sasuke’s direction and he does his best to ignore her obvious advances. “And my hobby is...well, my dream is to…”

Kakashi waves his hand, motioning her to continue. “And you hate…?”

Sakura straightens her shoulders. “Naruto.”

“I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I what I like the most is ramen! My hobby is eating different types of ramen and comparing them!” Naruto thrusts his hand in the air and barks out his introduction. “And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important!”

Sasuke crosses his arms. “My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I like working at the hospital, I hate more things than I care to list, and my dreams and hobbies are none of your business.”

“Come now, don’t be like that,” Kakashi gives one of the barely-visible smiles Sasuke has seen too many times during his tenure. “Name just one thing that you hate, and then just one dream and hobby each, okay?”

Sasuke scowls and tosses his hair- it’s long now, and he looks at himself in the mirror and smiles because he looks more like his mother every day- over his shoulder. “Fine. I hate people who pry into other people’s business after they’ve been told to bug off, my dream is to pass the chuunin exams on the first try so I can get away from you, and my hobby is reading iryoninjutsu scrolls in quiet solitude. Satisfied?”

Kakashi raises his hands in defeat. “Yes. Thank you, Sasuke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My current primary wish for the Naruto franchise is for Sasuke to endlessly sass Kakashi and for Kakashi to not know what to do with a tiny murderball Obito.  
> The majority of the dialogue in this chapter came directly from what transcripts of episode 4.


	4. Chapter 4

Sasuke has taken to overseeing Naruto’s training. As hardy as Naruto is, someone left a fuuinjutsu book out around him and he’s having a  _ bit _ too much fun with explosion seals the size of his head. He draws something wrong or he pumps in too much chakra or he smears the ink before it’s dry and every time manages to injure himself. A Naruto who’s too bruised to be of any worth sparring and makes up for it by being louder than usual isn’t the kind of Naruto that Sasuke enjoys spending time with.

So while Naruto learns new and exciting ways to make things go ‘boom’, Sasuke sits off to the side and goes over chakra theory, or old Uchiha scrolls about the Sharingan (there’s one in there written by  _ Madara Uchiha himself _ and Sasuke has never read anything so thoroughly), or tries to make some sense out of whatever seal Naruto’s scribbled on the veritable miles of scrolls he carries around at all times.

It was a halcyon time, when it was just the two of them having fun. They spent their afternoons off from Team 7 just training with each other, sparring and healing and sealing and making fun of each other.

Then the chuunin exams happened, and Jiraiya came and started training Naruto. The Toad Sage had no experience with iryoninjutsu, and with Sasuke’s limited knowledge of fuuinjutsu and their shared lack of time to spend on the basics on anything, Sasuke was left to his own devices. 

It makes Sasuke angry that he’s  being kicked out of his happy place, but more than anything else he’s jealous. Naruto is being trained by the legendary Jiraiya, the best Seals Master since the fall of Uzushio. Jiraiya is teaching Naruto seals almost faster than he can comprehend them, is teaching him techniques he shouldn’t have access to until he’s a chuunin  _ at least _ . Naruto is being groomed for greatness.

Sasuke is still spending half of his time volunteering in a hospital. He can’t justify waiting around for Naruto to injure himself and waste the time he could be spending on his own training. He has to find another teacher (Kakashi is too busy trying to beat confidence into Sakura to find time for Sasuke) He has to get better, get stronger, he has to find The Traitor, he has to-

No. He doesn’t have to do anything. 

Sasuke stops dead in his tracks walking home from his late shift. It has been a long time since Sasuke stopped to think about why he’s so dedicated to killing The Traitor. What he has done is irreversible, and Sasuke knows that killing The Traitor won’t bring back his mother’s silver laugh or his father’s rare smile. It probably won’t even make Sasuke feel better. Why is it so important to kill him anyway? If the mission in Wave has taught Sasuke anything, it’s that he doesn’t like killing. He doesn’t like death. 

Being a medic makes sense to him. The ability to protect, to heal, to stop people from losing each other like he has, it’s worthwhile. It’s been four years since the Massacre, and he’s no closer to his goal against the man who killed his entire clan. Sasuke’s achieved nothing on that front, but he’s made leaps and bounds in his studies as a medic. 

He knows how to set a bone with a paperclip and a hairtie, he can use his old clan techniques to cauterize a wound faster than most people can make them, and once even reattached someone’s limb. Sasuke knows a thousand ways to save a life, a thousand ways to save a family, a thousand ways to keep children from becoming orphans. But he can still learn  _ more _ .

So what if Naruto is being trained by Jiraiya of the Sannin? So what if Naruto’s future is being handed to him on a silver platter? Sasuke can’t complain. The Uchiha have always had it hard, having to carve their own place on top of the mountain and it makes them all the greater for the effort. There’s still two more Sannin out there, and one of them is the best medic to ever live. It’s going to be hard to track her down, and maybe he can’t do it right now, but after the exams are over Sasuke will have all the time in the world.

Sasuke straightens his back and speaks into the cool night air, visualizing Tsunade Senju before him. “Fuck Itachi anyways.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for writing things in one sitting while watching vine compilations


	5. Chapter 5

Raikō Matsuoka is a year older than Sasuke. For all that he was a chatty and catty nine-year-old, he’s mellowed out in the five years since Sasuke came to live with the Matsuokas. Raikō’s already a chuunin and well on his way to a career in mind-wandering in an apprenticeship under Arata Yamanaka, and even without that he’s the best listener Sasuke knows.

Every year, on the anniversary of the Massacre, Sasuke goes and sits in front of the meticulous Uchiha memorial (the one thing the village could bother to do for the one-hundred-seventy-nine shinobi and civilians murdered in cold blood was a modest stone with a large uchiwa and the date of the Massacre carved into the shiny white surface) and talks until his voice gives out. But the year Sasuke turns thirteen, Raikō sits with him and listens to Sasuke ramble about his mother.

Mikoto Uchiha was the head of the clan, no matter what people seem to remember. As much as Fugaku was the head on paper, he had no real talent for politics and if Mother’s bedtime stories were to be believed, spent a majority of his teen years fighting off Mother’s little brother’s well-intended attempts to ‘protect his beloved sister’s virtue’ from ‘that no-good stuck up heir who only wants you for your unimaginable beauty’ (Sasuke always tended to side with Uncle Obito in those stories- whatever kind of teen his father had been, he was lucky to have been chosen by Mother). She was a terrifying force of nature who braided sewing-needle-sized senbon into her hair, could kill jounin with her pinkie, and wore fire like it was the imported jewels she was so fond of. 

She could charm a beggar out of his last crust of bread with a bat of her eyelashes. She wielded words like the weapon they were, and could use them to bring kage to their knees with scarcely more than the effort it took her to brush her hair behind her ear. Nothing happened in the Uchiha clan without her permission, and every word that came out of her husband’s mouth was Mikoto’s idea.

Mikoto Uchiha was a force to be reckoned with, every inch a lion wrapped in the skin of a kitten. She was everything Sasuke aspired to be and more. Every day, he looks in the mirror, takes off his glasses, and pretends his reflection is his mother (because as his hair gets longer and his face gets thinner it becomes easier and easier to mistake him for Mikoto. Multiple times in the street an adult has called for her instead of him, and then apologizes profusely when they realize their mistake, but Sasuke finds himself not minding as much as he probably should.)

(Raikō Matsuoka is all of fourteen, a battle-tested chuunin worth his salt and more, and he’s seen into the memories of some royally messed-up people. B ut listening to Sasuke sob about the way his mother used to be is just heartbreaking.)

Perhaps it’s this, the sharing of it, that prompts Sasuke to finally return to his childhood home.

He moves through the house almost mindlessly, eyes half blank as he explores every room and retraces the path he used to take home from school every day. There, in that doorway, is where he used to leave his shoes. There, in front of the stove, is where Fugaku used to curse over his astounding ability to burn tea. There, at the table, is where Mikoto used to show Sasuke her scars and boast in that what-do-you-mean-I’m-being-entirely-humble way of hers about how she got them.

(There, in that sitting room, was where their son murdered them. The chalk is still on the mats where what few non-Uchiha police had drawn around the cold corpses. That is the one room he doesn’t enter, but he doesn’t need to. The image is burned into his mind.)

Sasuke goes into his parents’ bedroom, and he finds the mirror where his mother used to prepare herself for the day. In one drawer is a sealing scroll that, when unsealed, shows the entirety of Mikoto’s vast jewelry collection. After her family and her work, her jewels were her pride and joy.

He sits before the mirror, removes his glasses, lets down his hair, and puts on Mikoto’s favorite set of silver-wired rubies. Then, he looks at his reflection, and starts to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not gonna lie to y'all I just wanted to write about Mikoto


	6. Chapter 6

Sasuke is nineteen when the adopts a child.

He will forever insist that it was an accident. His daughter will forever disagree. To some extent, they are both correct. Because perhaps Sasuke wasn’t looking for a daughter, and perhaps she wasn’t trying to get herself adopted, but they both wanted something of the sort to happen and neither complained when it did. Sasuke says she attached herself to him like some kind of parasite upon first meeting him, and she will say that he rescued her from attack she doesn’t quite remember. They are both wrong.

It goes like this.

Sasuke is nineteen, and he is alone. The Traitor is dead, Shikamaru is busy being the head of his clan, Sakura and Naruto are on some kind of Great Journey to find Orochimaru and learn his secrets, Kakashi is being forced into the role of Hokage because Tsunade is  _ done _ and wants to take a long vacation somewhere, and the rest of Sasuke’s generation have largely forgotten Sasuke exists until they come barreling into the hospital at odd hours needing healing on a bone broken in five places and they need it done  _ now _ .

She comes to Konoha nameless, stumbling on tiny bare feet to the chuunin station at the gate covered in blood that is partially hers and partially not. Ebisu, who’s on guard duty, rushes her to the hospital as fast as he can.

Sasuke isn’t in charge of her, not at first, because he’s at home sleeping after four consecutive all-nighters saving the life of a premature baby when the little girl comes in. But when he arrives the next morning, his name is on the large chalkboard next to a blank space where two of the nurses attending her are arguing over what they should put down as her name.

(“We should call her Ruri,” Emiko says. “It’s the name of the main character in a book I’m reading right now-”

“Is she the main character or is she the love interest?” Satsuki argues, knowing Emiko well enough to tell exactly what kind of books she’s been reading. Emiko’s flush is enough of an answer. “I think we should call her Sakura, it’s the right season and she’ll be able to see the trees through her window.”

Emiko scoffs. “This town already has a Sakura, and this girl’s hair isn’t the right color.”

“How about Tobiko, then? This  _ is _ the Tobirama Senju Memorial Hospital after all, might as well make use of such a pretentious name,” Ikki from the morgue calls as she passes with a covered gurney.

“I like the sound of Jinju,” Kaori from obstetrics pipes in on her way back from breakfast.

“Yeah, that’s because you just named your kid that,” Someone argues.)

Sasuke never finds out if they decided on a name, because Juuzou points Sasuke to the right room and he goes on his merry way.

The little girl is dwarfed by the bed she’s in- even if she wasn’t in a full-sized bed already, she’s small and thin. The vibrancy of her red hair stands out against the white of the linens, and stands to make her skin look even paler.

Sasuke examines the chart at the end of her bed (approximately five years old, no old injuries, came in last night with an open head wound, a light concussion, and several broken bones, all easy fixes) and pretends not to notice her eyes cracking open minutely to watch him do it. He shifts from one foot to the other, tucks a loose lock of hair behind one ear, adjusts his glasses, and generally takes his time. He lets her watch him, get used to him. When she’s ready, she’ll let him know.

After a few minutes of idling and gently moving around the room, the little girl moves to sit up. He looks at her, smiling softly in a way that often calms children (the mixture of his long hair, his fondness for jewelry, and those soft smiles reminds kids of their mothers, which for most inspires good memories) and approaches her slowly.

“My name is Sasuke,” he introduces. “I’ll be taking care of you. What’s your name?”

She opens her mouth as if to respond, but then closes it in the way one normally does when they forget the answer to a question halfway through saying it. She tries again with the same result. Her lower lip quavered. “I don’t remember.”

He kneels at the side of her bed. “What do you remember?” Anything he can learn could lead to an identity, a family, someone who’s trying to find their child.

She draws her knees up and presses her face between then as she shakes her head. She doesn’t remember anything. Sasuke doesn’t say a word, just moves to sit on the bed and draws her head to his shoulder instead. She clings to him like a leech.

He strokes her hair and presses his cheek to the crown of her head. He hold her until she pulls away by herself, scrubbing her flushed face like she’s trying to wipe away the evidence.

“Well, we’ll need to call you something,” he says, crossing his arms theatrically and screwing up his face. She giggles a bit. “You’ve got pretty hair… we could just call you Tomato and be done with it.”

She grimaces. “No, tomatoes taste weird! I’m not a tomato!”

Sasuke pretends the insult doesn’t hurt him just as much as it hurts his vegetable garden.  “Well I don’t see you making any suggestions, princess.”

She ponders this for a moment, then looks up at him with big grey eyes that just suck him in. “Are there any red-haired warlords?”

The questions stuns him. This child can’t be more than five, and she wants to know about warlords. Sasuke immediately decides that this child is not to meet Tenten.

“I don’t know about any warlords, but I know about a red-haired lady jounin or two,” he says, smiling. When her entire face lights up, he continues. “There was Kushina Uzumaki, but everyone called her Tomato too…”

The little girl grimaced again. “Alright, that one’s out, but there was also the last Uzukage Izumi-” she doesn’t look impressed- “or Rie the Shape-Changer?” Another blank look. The next three Uzumaki Sasuke can name are also met without enthusiasm. 

“What about… Mito?” Sasuke suggests, out of ideas.

She cocks her head to the die. “Who’s that?”

“The wife of the founder of Konoha, the first jinchuuriki, the best seals master the village ever had. There are other people who could tell you better stories, all I can really do is heal broken bones.”

The little girl thinks for a moment, her eyes boring into his, before she grins and Sasuke is reminded of Naruto for an instant. “That works!”

* * *

 

The first step into fatherhood comes when Mito is healthy enough to be discharged, but has nowhere to go. Sasuke has grown attached to her, and he knows the horror stories of the orphanages of Konoha. He can’t let her be thrown into that.

Sasuke is the one who takes Mito to meet with Kakashi, because as Hokage he needs to approve this foreign child being admitted into Konoha’s system, and Sasuke is her attending physician and that makes him-- in the most technical and loop-holed sense-- her legal guardian.

Kakashi sighs as he explains things and signs paper after paper, barely even looking up from the reams of forms he has to sign to authorize Mito’s existence, and when Kakashi mentions how things will work in the orphanage… it just kind of slips out.

“I could take her,” he blurts, his mouth moving faster than his mind can approve what’s coming out, and Kakashi looks up with something as close to surprise as Sasuke has ever managed to get out of his old teacher. Sasuke gulps. “If she wants.”

Kakashi looks over his desk at the child who can’t be seen for stacks of unfinished paperwork. She’s grinning up at Sasuke like he hung the stars.

Kakashi sighs. He burns the form that would’ve sent her to the orphanage with the tip of his finger, puts the remaining papers into a thick envelope. He writes ‘Mito Uchiha’ on the front and walks around the desk to hand it to her.

The aging Hokage smirks at his former student through his mask. “I wish you luck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... I don't know where this came from but it happened in one sitting and I'm looking forward to introducing Mito to the rest of the cast. This will be fun.  
> I was a bit hesitant to post this because there was other stuff I wanted to get out beforehand but then I promptly forgot everything else and decided to post this anyway. Have fun.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look who found a way to make Naruto's return all angsty and shit  
> Note that Sasuke and Sakura are both healers, but they have differing levels of experience and skill. Sakura works mainly as a battle medic/EMT and reports in at the Tobirama Senju Memorial Hospital, while Sasuke works entirely at the hospital (except when someone needs him elsewhere, which is rare but known to happen).

Naruto returns to Konoha on a bright day in spring, and he couldn’t be happier to be home. There’s a new face on the Hokage mountain. But scowling Tsunade in stone is nowhere _near_ as terrifying as scowling Tsunade in real life, so Naruto sees it and almost laughs. Jiraiya disappears in the first five minutes, and Naruto can’t say he’s sorry to have some time away from the guy. Two and a half years of listening to the same poorly-thought-out hypersexual plotlines on the road wasn’t something he was going to miss.

But the first person he runs into is a flustered Sakura with a kid trailing after her. Sakura is still as beautiful as the dawn-- if the dawn was on fire and could punch you through six brick walls. Her hair is still just as short as it was when Naruto left,and her eyes blaze with a newfound passion. The kid behind her is small with silver hair and a band on his arm that says he’s a new chuunin training a specialty (which is weird, because he can’t be much older than ten).

“Naruto?” She says, her voice colored with surprise. She nearly stops to talk with him, but all she gets in is a quick hug before the kid makes an impatient noise.

“Sakura, we have to go. Doctors needed, remember?” He taps his foot impatiently and Naruto can almost see all the crossing-of-arms this kid would be doing if he wasn’t laden with blankets and bandages.

The pinkette nods. “And this is why they give me an assistant, to make sure I get places on time.” She turns back to Naruto. “Look, I’d love to stay and chat, but like Juuzou said, we have places to be. If you want to stop by the hospital later, my shift is over at ten.”

Naruto doesn’t even get the chance to agree before Sakura and Juuzou are speeding off to wherever they were heading before he found them.

The next people Naruto find are Kiba and Shino, but Naruto catches them _in flagrante delicto_ and he’s proofread enough of Jiraiya’s manuscripts to know what happens after hands get shoved down pants in quiet alleyways. It’s nothing he wants to see two of his childhood friends doing. Neji, Lee, Tenten, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino are nowhere to be found, and Naruto finds himself wandering towards the hospital five hours before Sakura gets off work because he’s bored.

He finds a guy sitting on a bench, in wrinkled scrubs with hair like charcoal pulled into a what used to be a tight bun but was now falling out of the tie like he had pulled at it. The guy looks tired, like he’s been fighting a war by himself. There’s a styrofoam cup of coffee held loosely in his hands, but Naruto doesn’t have to get close to know that it’s cold.

“Hey, are you okay?” Naruto stepped closer, already reaching out to put a hand on the stranger’s shoulder.

The doctor glances up, and Naruto gets a better look at his face. He nearly takes a step back out of shock. Because it’s Sasuke.

Sasuke, who always healed Naruto’s various training-inflicted injuries with endless snark and reprimands. Sasuke, who was always ready to complain but could fight like a cornered animal when it came down to it, even if he never dealt the killing blow. Sasuke, who was hailed as the most promising genin in his year. Sasuke, who has eyebags deeper than the lowest valleys hidden poorly behind thin-framed glasses. Sasuke, who looks like he’s ready to cry.

He sees Naruto and scrubs at his eyes.

Naruto sits down next to him on the bench. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Sasuke brushes flyaway hairs out of his face and takes a deep breath. “I just spent sixteen hours in surgery trying to save the life of a little girl who died anyway.” Naruto tries to say something comforting, but Sasuke interrupts him “Her name was Airi. She was five. She wanted to be a florist when she grew up. She had the softest little voice.”

The name is familiar, even if Naruto was a bit old to have been hanging out with what would have been a two-year-old before he left. It’s familiar in the way that a friend’s relative is familiar, because the friend talks about them a lot and you eventually filter it out.

“I guess I’ll have to tell Ino. She was her cousin after all. That won’t be fun, she loved Airi to death.” The raven-haired doctor’s voice is emotionless and distant. For a moment he's silent. His eyes hold only a thousand-yard stare. Out of nowhere, Sasuke makes a broken noise and scrubs his hands through his hair, pulling it out of order all together. The bright red tie hangs limply at the end in the front as messy black hair falls over his shoulders. “I promised Ino I would save her. I _promised_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahaha I don't know where this came from  
> hmu at pwnie3.tumblr.com (main) or fullmetaldoodles.tumblr.com (art and writing)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may or may not take place before Sasuke adopts Mito, I haven't decided yet.

Norio Kazutane blows into Konoha with the first thoughts of winter at his back. He smells like a thunderstorm and the ends of his copper hair are singed, he only carries the bag across one-shoulder, and he promptly finds the Bent Senbon and tries to get a room for the night.

The bartender Ishi who is also the innkeeper, a retired old jounin that no-one can ever really remember meeting for the first time but is seemingly older than the building itself and knows every secret whispered to the walls, gives him a quick once-over when he enters and upon not recognizing him in the slightest directs him to the barstool closest to the door.

“I’ve never seen you around here before stranger, but you look pretty enough to hang out over here with the cool kids.” An arm swings around Norio’s shoulders and drags him towards a table in the corner. “He’ll be fine Ishi, we’ll be sure to find him a nice hotel room once he gets plastered.”

The person attached to the arm sits him down and then plops into the chair across the table. He’s smiling like a cat that got the cream, has set two drinks down on the table. “You seem new around here.”

Norio nods. “Not really intending to stay long though.”

The mysterious nin tosses the comment aside. “Eh, this isn’t the stuff that will get you drunk. That’s more expensive. I’d rather get to know you before you’re too far gone to remember.” He grins. “The name’s Sandā Matsuoka, nice to meet ya.”

“Norio Kazutane.” He inclines his head and lifts his drink to take a sip. “Is this just how you make new friends, or…?”

“Nah, I’m trying to find my brother a boyfriend. You don’t seem to have much going for you, so I figured you might at least be able to give him a good dicking.”

Norio squirts alcohol out of his nose. “What?”

Sandā laughs, and he sounds fit to die. “That was beautiful my dude. And yes, you heard me right. My brother needs to get laid and you’re candidate number one, Mister Kazutane.”

Thumping his chest with one fist, Norio clears his throat. “Um-”

Before he can say a thing, the sprightly Sandā is already up and out of his seat. He’s still wheezing with laughter. “I’ll be right back with him. Don’t move.”

Norio watches Sandā weave through the crowded tables full of civilians and shinobi alike.  He keeps his eyes scanning the room, those precious years of genin training proving to be well-ingrained. He notices instantly when Sandā reappears through the throng, dragging behind him--

Norio’s mouth suddenly goes dry. The world stops spinning, time ceases all movement. The breath leaves his lungs and all thought leaves his head save that this is the most beautiful person he’s ever seen in his life. The man looks like some kind of dark angel. His eyes are the hollow in the sky when the moon is gone, his hair the darkness beyond the circle of firelight. Against these shadowy features, his skin gleams like the setting sun turning the sea into liquid diamond.

“Wreck me,” Norio says before he can stop himself. His voice cracks on the way out, and that added to the blush on his face probably makes him look much more drunk than he actually is.

The man looks at Sandā with one elegant eyebrow raised, giving him the air of a judgemental god.

“Norio, meet my brother Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke, meet Norio Kazutane. I’d say he’s down to fuck, so have fun!” Sandā shoves Sasuke down into the chair opposite Norio, flashes them both a double thumbs-up and a grin like a firework, then disappears back into the crowd.

For a moment, neither one says anything,. Then Sasuke downs the drink Sandā has left on the table in one gulp (flashing the marble column of his neck and making Norio all too aware of his growing problem) and slams the cup back down on the table. “Finish your drink, then I’m taking you back to my place and you’re ravishing me until noon tomorrow.”

Norio simply nods and finishes his drink. Apparently he does it a bit too slow for Sasuke’s liking. Norio thinks he drops his cup on the table, but then he’s being dragged out of his seat and being slammed against the nearest wall. There’s a thigh between his legs and hair tickling his cheek and-

“It’s kind of a now thing, mister Kazutane,” Sasuke hisses in his ear, then nibbles a bit at the lobe.

Norio swallows hard. “Whenever you’re ready.”

* * *

 

He wakes with a dick aching like someone’s danced on it and someone’s hair in his face. He looks down to see his bedmate, radiant in the morning sun as it glances off his skin.

Last night, he didn’t really get the chance to think about who he was bedding before Sasuke was hot and tight around him and all he knew was the pleasure in his body and the noises the slimmer man was making. But the name of Sasuke Uchiha is one everyone knows, once they get the chance to collect their thoughts.

The last Uchiha is practically famous, both for his heritage and the fact that he’s among the most ruthless of fighters on the battlefield. While he isn’t considered to be active field duty anymore since taking up a more stable position in a hospital, the so-called Red Prince is still notorious for his disabling techniques that never quite kill his victims. Oh yeah, and that whole thing in the Fourth Great Shinobi War where he was imperative in ending it. That was a factor in his notoriety.

Sasuke makes a small sound as he awakes and stretches slightly, then opens one eye in a lazy and feline fashion. The sheet-- the only thing besides his hair covering any part of him-- slips further down his hips as he stretches. “Like what you see?” he drawls.

“Oh yeah,” Norio responds, bending over to press his lips to the exposed small of Sasuke’s back. “I like it a lot.”

Sasuke rolls over and pulls Norio back up to speak face-to-face. He kisses him. Sasuke hums contentedly against Norio’s mouth, then leans back and hooks his arms around his neck.

“Stay for breakfast?” Sasuke asks.

Norio’s next kiss is his answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Norio is an oc of mine who is very near and dear to my heart. I've had him in my head for a while and I intend to use him a lot more in the future.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay but??? I love the idea of this AU???? I finally felt motivated to write for the first time in weeks???


End file.
